Contents
For about 47 minutes of every orbit, Michael Collins is cut off from everything. Behind the Moon no radio signal reaches him – not even in the hour when his two crewmates take the first steps on the lunar surface. The whole world is watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. No one sees Collins. But without him, neither of them gets home. His role is a clear illustration of the Team Principle of Reliability: teamwork begins where everyone can rely on everyone else without having to check.
The Role No One Sees
Situation
Michael Collins is the pilot of the command module “Columbia.” He joins the Apollo 11 crew in January 1969. The mission launches on July 16, 1969. On July 20 at 5:44 p.m. UTC, the lunar module “Eagle,” carrying Armstrong and Aldrin, undocks. At 8:17 p.m. it lands. The lander spends 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon. Meanwhile Collins orbits alone – about 28 hours from undocking to docking.
Connection to the team principle
From the surface of the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin cannot check whether everything is in order up above. They can neither monitor Collins nor replace him. The visible achievement of the two depends on the invisible achievement of the third. Every team has roles like this. People only notice them when they fail.
117 Pages for 18 Scenarios
Situation
Collins knows that the lander’s return flight may not go to plan. He has prepared for that. In the capsule lies a 117-page booklet. It contains 18 different procedures for bringing the two spacecraft back together – in case the lander lifts off too early, too late or into the wrong orbit.
Connection to the team principle
Once again, reliability here means preparation. Collins doesn’t just promise to be there. He has thought through what he will do if the others don’t end up where they are supposed to. People who rely on you aren’t only relying on your normal routine. They are relying on you to have planned for their emergencies too.
One Engine and a Felt-Tip Pen
Situation
The return from the Moon depends on a single ascent engine. In case Armstrong and Aldrin do not come back, a speech is already waiting for President Richard Nixon; William Safire has written it. Inside the lander, Aldrin accidentally breaks off the switch of a circuit breaker connected to exactly this engine. A felt-tip pen takes its place. In his book “Carrying the Fire,” Collins later writes, in essence, that his greatest fear was having to return to Earth alone. But he did not, he wrote, feel lonely. He saw himself as part of what was happening down below.
Connection to the team principle
Reliability runs both ways. Collins depends on the others’ work just as much as they depend on his – and on the work of the engineers who built the engine. He can’t check anything either. What stands out is how he describes his role: not as being sidelined, but as part of the whole. Anyone who sees a low-profile task that way does it differently.
Docking
Situation
On July 21 at 5:54 p.m. UTC, the lander lifts off from the Moon. The engine fires. At 9:35 p.m. “Eagle” is docked with “Columbia” again. On July 24, 1969, after eight days and just over three hours, the capsule splashes down. Collins leaves NASA in 1970. From 1971 to 1978 he directs the National Air and Space Museum. He dies on April 28, 2021, at the age of 90.
Connection to the team principle
The contingency procedures were never needed. That doesn’t diminish their value. Reliability isn’t measured by how often the emergency occurs. It is measured by whether the others can do their work without having to think about you.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Find the “Collins roles” in your team: tasks that earn no applause but that everyone else’s work depends on. Let the people who carry them know that you see this.
- Don’t just prepare your own plan; prepare for the others’ deviations too. That is where your reliability is needed.
- If you work behind the scenes yourself, see yourself as part of the mission, not as a spectator.
- Create conditions in which your team never has to chase you for answers. Every follow-up question that becomes necessary reveals a gap.
Summary
Michael Collins never set foot on the Moon. He kept the way home open – about 28 hours alone, repeatedly without radio contact, with 18 procedures ready in case something went wrong. From below, Armstrong and Aldrin couldn’t verify any of it. The Team Principle of Reliability says: this is exactly where teamwork begins – where everyone can rely on everyone else without having to check.